Attacking the US Ambassador will not help Rupiah win an election
Attacking the US Ambassador will not help Rupiah win an electionBy The Post
Fri 11 Mar. 2011, 04:00 CAT
If ever there was a sign that Rupiah Banda and his minions have very bad intentions for the forthcoming elections, their stance on parallel vote tabulation is such a sign.
We say this because it is very difficult to understand why a government that professes to govern according to the laws of our country can be so scared of transparency.
Why are they scared of our people getting to know the results as they are declared by presiding officers?
What is it that they want to do between the time that results are declared by presiding officers and the final declaration of winners by the Electoral Commission of Zambia?
The arguments by Rupiah’s vuvuzela, Ronnie Shikapwasha, and their rented non-governmental individuals (NGIs) do not make sense.
How can the correct tabulation of results be inimical to the interests of our country? What civil society is proposing is nothing new; it is something that has always been done.
In all the elections that we have covered since 1991, ZNBC for instance has tried to provide continuous coverage of the results that are being declared.
So far as we know, the parallel vote tabulation is just a process of keeping track of the results that are declared and adding them up.
But why should Rupiah and his minions be so scared of one plus one?
Ideally, a transparent process would help all those involved in the elections to be assured of the results and to fully respect the determinations of the Electoral Commission of Zambia.
What we are saying is if the results are well-tabulated in a transparent fashion, parallel vote tabulation is not a threat to anybody.
Elections are supposed to be well documented and verifiable. Every figure that is declared should be capable of being proved by using independent documentation.
It should not be possible for anyone to manufacture results that do not relate to the documentation that is used on polling day.
Rupiah’s government’s behaviour and reaction to civil society’s intention to be more involved in keeping track of the results as they are being declared raises very serious questions about their commitment to delivering a free, fair, transparent and credible election.
To suggest that parallel vote tabulation would lead to chaos is to be very dishonest.
Why should a tabulation of results create chaos?
The only time that there could be chaos is if those in authority decide to manipulate the vote tallying process mathematically to give themselves an undue advantage.
Once people have voted, the results should be cast in concrete.
The outcome should be determined only by the ballot papers that are in the sealed boxes. How that is tallied once the results have been declared is neither here nor there.
What is more worrying is that on this same parallel vote tabulation issue, Rupiah’s government is ready to cross swords with the international community. We have observed their attack on the American Ambassador which is totally unnecessary.
It is a well-known fact that the international community has for a long time now been supporting the work of civil society to deepen democracy.
Why then should the announcement by the American Embassy of its intention to support civil society in their efforts to be better monitors of the next elections generate such a harsh reaction from Rupiah’s government?
We say harsh because we do not recall a time when any of our governments issued such a threat against a serving American ambassador.
It is clear from what Rupiah’s government is saying that they are issuing a threat which amounts to suggesting that if the American Ambassador, or any other diplomat for that matter, talks about parallel vote tabulation, they risk being declared persona non grata or to put it simply, being deported.
Rupiah is threatening to have the US Ambassador deported because he is supporting the democratic aspirations of our people.
How can supporting the democratic aspirations of our people be such a bad thing?
It is said that those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat the mistakes of history.
It is also said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Since Rupiah and his friends are in power, they believe that they are entitled to unquestioned hold on it.
It also seems that they believe that the possibility of losing an election is something that they must frustrate at all costs.
This is why they find no contradiction with their position which wants to support an opaque approach to elections management and criminalise any efforts that would make the process more transparent.
What could be wrong with a transparent election process?
Why should a government that has no criminal intentions be worried about people getting to know results as soon as they are declared?
Transparency will actually help our people to accept the results of an election whatever the outcome.
An opaque process on the other hand will leave our people believing that something wrong has happened even where nothing could have happened.
Contrary to the position that Rupiah and his minions are propagating that parallel vote tabulation could cause confusion, it would actually make the election results more acceptable.
If one looks at what happened in Zimbabwe, we have no doubt that what made the results of the first round a little more acceptable than they would otherwise have been is that there was a clear parallel vote tabulation system that told everybody what the results should have been.
We are not here arguing about whether those elections were free and fair.
That is not the subject of our discussion.
The issue is it was easier for the opposition to verify the result of the first round of voting in Zimbabwe because of parallel vote tabulation.
The example of Kenya that is being used is a demonstration of why it is important to have parallel vote tabulation.
Kenya had a highly politicised electoral commission that proved incapable of declaring results as they came.
There were reports of results disappearing before they were declared.
We all know what happened in that situation.
It can be said that the lack of transparency in that electoral process led to an eruption of violence that cost the lives of many citizens.
It does not make sense for anyone to say that transparency is dangerous in an electoral process.
Transparency is the hallmark of any free and fair election. In the absence of transparency in the electoral process, it is not possible to talk about a free and fair election.
Rupiah and his friends need to reflect on this matter very carefully.
Their careless attacks on diplomats accredited to this country have already cost our people quite a lot.
We know that Rupiah no longer needs any donor aid because it seems his personal and family fortunes have undergone a miraculous transformation since he became President. But the same cannot be said about our people.
We should not forget that it is this same Rupiah that not too long ago told the donors to pack and go.
We see the same kind of attitude coming through in their reaction on parallel vote tabulation.
But attacking the American Ambassador will not help Rupiah win an election.
Labels: MARK STORELLA, VOTERIGGING
posted by MrK @ 1:28 PM
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